Ed Miliband is a man who poses smiling next to a colleague wearing a t-shirt with Thatcher’s grave on it. He happily knifed his own brother in the back, splitting his entire family in two, and did not even bother to include his name on his own son’s birth certificate.

When Vince Cable delivered his killer line at that day’s Prime Minister’s Questions, MPs in the Commons erupted in laughter and the humiliation of Gordon Brown was complete. The recently installed prime minister had encouraged talk of an early election that would smash the Tories, only to withdraw farcically at the last moment because he feared defeat

5-31-14

I have consistently maintained that the Liberal Democrat party is an anachronism, a perversion and general waste of political space. So imagine my joy in recent weeks at discovering that the remaining members of the Liberal Democrat party are starting to agree with me.

I have just read a book so good I want to read it again. But I also want to read (or write) a more complete version of it that is less solicitous of its subject and more concerned with the failures of modern liberalism — as evidenced by the recent success of UKIP and other populists across Europe.

With one week to go till polling day, the Tories are throwing the kitchen sink at the Newark by-election. When Patrick Mercer resigned last month, it was assumed the Conservatives would easily hold the seat. But since then, Ukip gave a strong performance locally in the Euro elections, adding an unknown element — a higher turnout in Ukip’s favour? A rise in the anti-politics sentiment?

5-29-14

In Brighton in 1996, an insurgent party held its first and as far as I can see only conference. Liberal journalists gazed on the gaudy spectacle with wonder and disdain. We could see that he Referendum Party was a sign of the coming age of the super-rich. It was created by Sir James Goldsmith, a corporate raider who inspired the English tycoon Sir Larry Wildman, in Wall Street, and, you may not be surprised to hear, was a vain and bombastic censor to boot. (He persecuted Private Eye in the courts for not treating him with the deference a mighty plutocrat deserved.)

Tax Freedom Day, which falls today, is cause for celebration. It marks the point in the calendar when someone’s income stops paying for their tax bill and they start keeping the money they have earned. It is an annual reminder that people who work hard and play by the rules deserve to keep their hard won earnings. It is why cutting tax has always been a priority for Conservatives.

5-27-14

For once, the predictions turned out to be correct. The European elections have shaken the establishment. An insurgent leader has defied the odds, and a hostile media, and cemented his place in British political history. Hats off to David Cameron.